First Corps FT-17

I had been keen on picking up a FT-17 from First Corps after seeing 'Tin Shed Gamers' post on the Lead Adventure Forum so at the recent Partizan picked one up from Simon and Mike at the First Corps stand.

Opening the box it is very well packaged.

Just five resin parts, including a choice of turrets and a separate white metal Hotchkiss machine-gun.

It's a very easy assembly with minimal cleaning up, although at first I thought I had really badly cast running gear until I realised that it was supposed to be mud! To make the turrets more robust I drilled a hole in the hull and added a long wire shaft to the base of the turret.

Here it is next to a Gripping Beast Poilu, I think it may be a bit over large and heigh but that should not cause a problem on the table, I had originally planned to get some of the old Force of Arms ones from Empress, but at 1/60 they would have been far too tiny.

Painting was very simple, after assembly the model was washed in detergent and then sprayed with car primer and then when dry Army Painter 'Army Green'. The tracks and detail were base-coated and then the whole lot washed with Vallejo Sepia wash.

I then applied a couple of highlights and some Tamiya Model Master weathering and after less than an hours effort it was ready for deploying on the table.

I'll be able to use this in both my late WWI and Spanish Civil War games.

Plenty more images of both 37mm gun and Hotchkiss machine-gun configurations.

Apologies for the washed out images, the florescent tube went in my daylight lamp and I had to photograph using an incandescent one.